InfoWorld articles from October 2001

InfoWorld archives from October 2001

Securing privacy - Hamilton Scientific turns to Niksun to protect medical records on its ASP service.(use NetVCR network management software and NetDetector network securitysoftware)
October 1, 2001... AS MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS move their daily practices further and further into the electronic world, so too has the mandate grown to protect the privacy of patient information. U.S. government regulations such as HIPAA (Health Insurance...

Putting a face on Web services - Proliferation of client types demands new approach to interfaces.
October 1, 2001... AS WEB SERVICES usher in new ways to build, deploy, and consume software, they will in turn demand new interfaces. The current method of accessing software from a big fat PC browser won't be entirely replaced any time soon, but as new devices...

Wireless connection - Aether Systems helps companies adapt to a wireless world using the service provider model.(interview with Aether Systems CTO Dale Shelton)
October 1, 2001... AS WITH THE emergence of any new technology, the expertise to take advantage of it is rarely immediately at hand. This creates an opportunity for service providers to fill in the gap between the time a technology first emerges and the time it...

Cutting costs - Ten tips IT can employ now to save the company money tomorrow.
October 1, 2001... With more uncertain economic times ahead, the call from executive suites to save money is bound to grow louder. Still, it will take a varied combination of efforts to tighten up an already tight budget, says Gary Lazarus, CTO of Office.com...

ENTERPRISE STRATEGIES: When the walls fall - A solid contingency plan is essential for ensuring effective recovery when disaster hits.
October 1, 2001... WHILE CONTEMPLATING recent disasters, I've received a number of requests from readers looking to reassess the disaster readiness of their IT infrastructure. Finally, businesses are showing concern for a subject too often left simmering on the...

SURVIVAL GUIDE: The path to truth - Proponents of open-source licensing say developments are innovative, while others say it'll change in time.
October 1, 2001... "THE RUB ?1201? is finding that balance between being open-minded enough to accept radical new ideas but not so open-minded that your brains fall out." -- Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine IN MEL BROOKS' classic movie...

THE OPEN SOURCE: Where the heart lies - The heart of America is its ability to make a profit, right? Just ask a few open-source programmers.
October 1, 2001... A LONG TIME ago, I was taught that it was far better to take a job where the prior jobholder failed than to follow in the footsteps of someone who was regarded as a giant in his or her field. The logic is simple: Even someone doing a mediocre...

SECURITY ADVISER: Are you feeling jumpy? Overreacting to a crisis is worse than doing nothing at all, and how to defend against the next Nimda.
October 1, 2001... THE MOST IMPORTANT thing to do in a crisis is to keep your cool. It's also the most difficult thing to do, and some of us aren't doing very well after the attacks in Virginia and New York. Much of the stress comes from the misinformation that's...

WINDOW MANAGER: Your Passport, please - Readers respond to my report that Microsoft's Passport isinsecure on Windows 9x and Me.(Microsoft Passport data security software)
October 1, 2001... I REVEALED ON Sept. 10 that Windows 9x and Me store your user name and password as plain text in memory every time you dial an ISP and store the text for 10 minutes after you've disconnected. Many PCs are silently infected with Trojan horses...

WIRELESS WORLD: Creating a safer world - Wireless technology can help make our lives more secure by tying customer systems to law enforcement.
October 1, 2001... WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY can make the world a safer place. A Portland, Ore., policeman in a patrol car can now stop a suspicious driver and use a wireless connection to tap into the department's mug shots. Beyond the local level, technologies...

CTO CONNECTION: The devil is in the details - Getting back to normal now means focusing on the strategic details, and not so much on the vision.(as a result of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks)
October 1, 2001... MANY PEOPLE I talk to lately, while still grieving for the tragic losses from the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks, have been trying to avoid the news to regain focus on work. Our leaders, from President Bush to the CEOs of major...

To the editor.(Letter to the Editor)
October 1, 2001... Do I know you? IN RESPONSE TO your article, "Airports under IT microscope" (see Sept. 17, page 22), biometric technology is available and may already be in wider use than you believe. Recent programs on the Discovery Channel (Caught in the...

THE GRIPE LINE: Control with fine print - FrontPage 2002's EULA is confusing at best, but that it exists at all is what's important about software licenses in general.(Microsoft Web authoring platform)
October 1, 2001... THE MOST DANGEROUS snake is the one you don't see until you step on it. I think that might also be said of the license terms hiding in shrinkwrap/clickwrap licenses. This was amply illustrated last week after I mentioned here that the EULA...

NOTES FROM THE FIELD: A grand doesn't go so far.
October 1, 2001... HOW DO YOU reconcile two fundamentally different world views? First, to the guy who told me to get off the political bandwagon, a note of reassurance: Notes from the Field is, and always will be, a forum for IT news, gossip, and rumor. But...

E-BUSINESS PULSE: The next big thing - Web services won't be the next big thing, as some have predicted, but it will be big next year.
October 1, 2001... MOST OF THE computer trade press, including InfoWorld, have placed Web services in the much exalted spot of one of "the next big things in computing." In case you missed it, Web services are application services deployed over the Net in an...

ABOVE THE NOISE: Wielding the mighty power of voice - With the finalization of Voice XML 2.0 looming, how we do business may change forever.
October 1, 2001... EVERYONE KNOWS the pen is mightier than the sword, but few people contemplate what is mightier than the pen. When you think about it, the one thing that can mobilize people instantly is the voice, especially when the words being spoken are...

Times dictate a critical look at outsourcing.
October 1, 2001... Whether it is a sign of the downcast economic times or the natural development of technology, the outsourcing marketplace is clearly maturing. Yet despite developments on the vendor side and their potential benefits, businesses must analyze...

VeriSign buys Illuminet.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... Internet domain registry and security specialist VeriSign last week agreed to buy network services company Illuminet Holdings in a stock transaction worth $1.2 billion. The merger will allow VeriSign to offer services that combine voice and IP...

AOL Time Warner recasts 2001 financial picture.(as result of September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... AOL Time Warner last week revised its financial estimates downward, saying the declining ad market and costs related to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks continue to erode earnings. The company now expects to see its adjusted earnings for 2001...

Cisco, E.piphany tie up.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... Cisco Systems and E.piphany last week agreed to bundle a variety of their software products in an effort to make customer contact centers smarter. A package that combines Cisco's customer contact software platform and E.piphany's E.5 suite of...

Users pushing for free subnets.
October 1, 2001... A GRASSROOTS EFFORT to deploy free wireless networking access zones is taking hold and threatens to undermine the multibillion-dollar campaigns of wireless network vendors preparing to offer state-of-the- art 3G (third-generation) wireless...

CRM marriage bears fruit - Kana articulates product merger with suite of Web-based CRM wares.(Kana iCARE)(Product Announcement)
October 1, 2001... FOLLOWING UP on its merger with Broadbase Software, Kana launched a Web-based CRM product last week that features technologies from both companies. Kana iCARE (intelligent Customer Acquisition and Retention for the Enterprise) is an eCRM...

Flamenco offers p-to-p service.(Flamenco Networks' peer-to-peer service)
October 1, 2001... WITH WEB SERVICES technology still trapped in a mire of competing standards and slow adoption, several smaller third-party vendors are rushing in with solutions that promise to make Web services easier for customers to use. The latest...

The Bug Report.(Windows 2000 Control Panel)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... Bugs and fixes reported to the BugNet MICROSOFT When going to the Windows 2000 Control Panel and clicking the Add/Remove Programs icon, a series of dialog boxes may be displayed instead of the expected single dialog. Microsoft says this is...

Tibco, BEA push portals.(Tibco Software's ActivePortal 3.0, BEA Systems' BEA WebLogic Portal 4.0)(Product Announcement)
October 1, 2001... ONCE NEATLY UNDER the thumb of a few pure-play software vendors, the enterprise portal market is exploding, attracting offerings from infrastructure, services, and software heavyweights. Heating up the application infrastructure pickings, Tibco...

Exodus asks for bankruptcy protection.(Exodus Communications)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... Beleaguered Web hosting company Exodus Communications filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last week as it looked to buy time for a companywide reorganization, the company said. One of the world's larger hosting companies, Exodus also said GE...

IBM extends WebSphere Application Server.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... Extending the core capabilities of its WebSphere Application Server, IBM announced new WebSphere software products to help in creating and integrating infrastructure-level applications. Separately, IBM also said it would support the...

Ariba unveils enterprise sourcing application.(Ariba Enterprise Sourcing)(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... Ariba last week rolled out Ariba Enterprise Sourcing, designed to allow companies to quickly save money by negotiating more favorable contracts with suppliers and by automating the sourcing process -- from defining spending requirements to...

SAP sets up global team.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... Business software maker SAP is creating a unit to meet the consulting needs of multinational customers who implement the company's products on a global scale. The Global Professional Services Organization is scheduled to begin work by the end...

Sun unleashes Starcat server.(Sun Microsystems' Sun Fire 15K server)(Product Announcement)
October 1, 2001... A FAST-APPROACHING showdown between Sun Microsystems and IBM for dominance of the high-end Unix server market received added firepower last week, when Sun released its Sun Fire 15K server, known as Starcat. Whereas the big picture going...

Sun alliance takes on Passport.(Liberty Alliance Project, Microsoft's Passport)
October 1, 2001... BUILDING A COALITION to counter the single sign-on authentication of Microsoft's Passport, Sun Microsystems and 33 partners last week detailed the Liberty Alliance Project. This latest move in the Web services battle came after months of...

Focused ASPs seek second wind.(application service providers)(Industry Overview)
October 1, 2001... PRESSURE ON IT spending and service improvements are breathing new life into the struggling ASP model, with financial services, health care, and government sectors in particular turning anew to application hosting. The financial advantages...

Users re-examine licenses - Microsoft's revamped volume licenses spur renewed scrutiny, confusion.
October 1, 2001... CORPORATE USERS LAST week said that Microsoft's controversial new corporate licensing plan, set to launch Oct. 1, is forcing users to upgrade Windows and Office applications before they want to. A decision to sign on to its revamped volume...

Feds eye more surveillance - They also try to allay privacy concerns in wake of new war on terrorism.(Anti-terrorism Act of 2001)
October 1, 2001... WHILE PUSHING FOR broader intelligence gathering for law enforcement, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft last week said that the government is not trying to peel back privacy rights in its war on terrorism. Set against pronounced...

From search to find - More sophisticated Web-searching technologies will mean increasingly targeted searches, more accurate results, and buyers and sellers in tune with one another.(Industry Overview)
October 1, 2001... FOLLOW US INTO the future to a time when buyers and sellers flawlessly find one another through the perfect search engine. The opposite ends of commerce have finally bridged the gap between expectations and actual supplies and demands....

The new face of Web collaboration - Magi Enterprise 2.0's browser-based file sharing, security tools put new power in peering.(Evaluation)
October 1, 2001... IT IS A PARADOX that despite the increasingly distributed nature of the corporate work force, workers still must rely on centralized file servers to share files -- a method that was convenient in the days when office-bound workgroups were...

Information building - More than a set of powerful tools, knowledge management requires a shift in a company's cultural mind-set.(Industry Overview)
October 1, 2001... FACING COMPETITIVE pressures and a bleak economic climate, chief executives are demanding better use of corporate resources. This demand applies not only to technology resources but also to the vast intellectual capital residing within...

VMware opens way to virtual worlds - Workstation 3.0 provides multiple operating system environments without dual-boot woes.(VMware's VMware Workstation 3.0)
October 1, 2001... FOR MANY BUSINESSES, the next several months will be less about making it big and more about making do. Because many employees, such as developers, salespeople, and training staff, require the use of several OSes, IT managers looking to save...

A federal call for IT - Despite uncertain economic times and moves to bring in new talent, the federal government is facing an IT brain drain.(IT personnel retirement crisis)
October 1, 2001... DESPITE THE SAGGING tech economy, the federal government is sandwiched between a pair of festering personnel problems: a decided shortfall of young incoming tech talent and a looming IT personnel retirement crisis. Federal CIOs have been...

H-1B after the attack - Immigration attorneys warn of heightened scrutiny of applications and documentation.(Industry Overview)
October 1, 2001... WITH SOME EXPERTS calling for changes to immigration policy and enforcement as a result of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, some attorneys say H-1B practices also must change. Attorney Rebekah Poston says that a real and immediate impact of...

The supply chain is coming into line; now sales and distribution are being integrated into the electronic enterprise.
October 8, 2001... MUCH OF THE HYPE surrounding e-commerce was fueled by the potential for manufacturers to eliminate the middleman and sell direct to customers. But for many customers, established relationships with distributors and resellers and dealing with a...

Comergent is helping enterprises manage relationships with vendors and distributors by automating the link from customer through distributor to manufacturer.
October 8, 2001... BILL YORK IS CTO and a founder of Redwood City, Calif.-based channel management vendor Comergent with a great deal of prior experience in user interface and artificial intelligence technologies. Prior to his work at Comergent, York spent five...

CTO of MLB.com creates products that will hit home with baseball fans.
October 8, 2001... JOE CHOTI, CTO of Major League Baseball's online presence -- MLB.com -- is a passionate man. If you don't believe it, all you need to do is listen to him talk about the two things which he is most passionate: IT and baseball. "I'm...

Data quality issues plague CRM : Opportunities arise for cleanup services and software to boost reliability of information.
October 8, 2001... CRM'S POTENTIAL to provide better customer service and in turn boost revenue has caught the attention of many companies. But a number of CRM deployments are thwarted by faulty, inconsistent data sets that prevent enterprises from having a...

Seeking full protection for Net assets : Cyberinsurance helps companies fill the gaps left by traditional insurance policies.
October 8, 2001... VIRUSES CRIPPLE E-MAIL and riddle networks. Cyberthieves break into Web servers and steal customer data. Malicious hackers set off DoS (denial of service) attacks. What's to keep an IT professional from tossing and turning in the face of such...

ENTERPRISE STRATEGIES: It's compliance time.
October 8, 2001... The clock is ticking for health care organizations to meet privacy mandates, but now is the time to rebuild ONLY 18 MONTHS remain for health care practitioners to bring systems into compliance with the strict privacy mandates brought on by...

WINDOW MANAGER: There'll be no XP for me.
October 8, 2001... Which is Microsoft's best operating system? It isn't Windows XP, and I recommend avoiding it MANY READERS have written me with the question, "Faced with the choice of Windows 95, 98, Me, NT, 2000, and now XP, which operating system is the...

SECURITY ADVISER: Time to dump IIS?
October 8, 2001... Gartner report advises alternatives to Microsoft as Michigan academics debunk the steganography panic MICROSOFT TOOK another hit on Sept. 19 when a Gartner report advised its readership to "immediately investigate alternatives" to...

THE OPEN SOURCE: Trade shows grow up.
October 8, 2001... Open source has finally come of age with its suits and marketing plans and business focus REFLECTING ON the recent LinuxWorld Conference and Expo in San Francisco, I am struck by the number of changes that have occurred in Linux...

SURVIVAL GUIDE: Whose side are you on?
October 8, 2001... Facilitating organizational change doesn't have to be about the good guys and the bad guys MANAGEMENTSPEAK: I won't set the priorities for you. TRANSLATION: If I did, I couldn't shift the blame to you. -- IS Survivalist Rick...

WIRELESS WORLD: Pocket-size open source.(Column)
October 8, 2001... Compaq iPaq plus the Linux OS turn a companion device into a handy mobile workstation AS PROMISED, this is my second column about using Linux as the operating system and as the development platform for mobile applications on a handheld...

CTO CONNECTION: What does it all mean?
October 8, 2001... Project management won't help you achieve your technical goals if your team doesn't get what it means ON THESE PAGES you often read about the latest tools and approaches IT leaders should use to help their companies achieve stated business...

NOTES FROM THE FIELD: Got a little time to help?(Column)
October 8, 2001... IF AMBER IS any indication, you can't keep a good nation down. She's joined the ranks of a community service organization for part-time volunteer work, as so many are doing around the country in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. Community...

THE GRIPE LINE: You've been cut off.(Column)
October 8, 2001... Now that the industry is redefining 'lifetime guarantee,' your warranty may not last as long as you thought it would WHEN DOES A vendor's responsibility to fix a broken product end? Is it over when the warranty runs out? Readers...

To the editor.(Letter to the Editor)
October 8, 2001... Grateful for the recognition I WOULD LIKE to thank and congratulate Michael Vizard on his "Heroes who work behind the scenes" commentary in InfoWorld (see Above the Noise, Sept. 24). I happen to be both the IT manager and communications...

E-BUSINESS PULSE: Unpopular stepchild.
October 8, 2001... Despite its economic woes and unpopularity, e-business has a future that is quite bright IF YOU WANT to be really unpopular with your boss, suggest a new e-business initiative. Not only will you be turned down, but you'll be looked at like...

ABOVE THE NOISE: Our time should equal their money.
October 8, 2001... Every day IT departments lose valuable time and company money chasing vendors THE ENTIRE PROCESS of ordering, buying, and receiving computer equipment has always been fraught with misadventure and economic inefficiency. But given the...

FOR THE RECORD : Changing gears as IT budgets downshift.
October 8, 2001... Whereas wide-eyed visions of frictionless e-commerce opened the technology funding floodgates last year, a laser focus on costs has tightened the budget flow to a trickle this year. But as former downturns have shown, successful businesses...

Embattled Nortel taps new CEO, plans layoffs.(Brief Article)
October 8, 2001... Ailing telecom equipment maker Nortel Networks last week gave a grim financial forecast for the current quarter and announced a new CEO and the elimination of 10,000 jobs. In addition, Nortel said it would sell nearly all the assets of its...

Siebel scoops up nQuire.(Brief Article)
October 8, 2001... Siebel last week announced plans to acquire nQuire Software. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. nQuire provides data analysis in real time to enable such things as gauging the success of a marketing campaign midstream. nQuire...

The Bug Report.(iPlanet, Cisco fix security problems)(Brief Article)
October 8, 2001... Bugs and fixes reported to BugNet iPLANET Web Server, Enterprise Edition 6, Service Pack 1 now removes its inability to handle a relative URL when a CGI program attempts to redirect a browser. CISCO The Code Red worm can exploit a...

Lotus, IBM muscle into CM : Web Content Management Solution bundles existing systems with third parties.(Product Announcement)
October 8, 2001... EXTENDING ITS workflow and document management capabilities to Web publishing, IBM's Lotus Development subsidiary has jumped into the CM (content management) arena with a packaged bundle of products and services. Another CM vendor, Interwoven,...

VPN defenses enhanced.(Check Point Software to roll out new system; other vendors working)(on improved virtual private network technology)(Product Announcement)
October 8, 2001... IN THE WAKE of the last month's terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, a growing mood of wariness is spurring many enterprises to push up deadlines for security initiatives. At next week's ISPcon trade show in Las Vegas,...

Sun, HP unite on services.(Internet datacenter solutions)
October 8, 2001... IN A BID TO capitalize on the evolving datacenter market, longtime rivals Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems are joining forces to collaborate on Internet datacenter products and services. The key to the partnership will be mutual...

IBM's Regatta sails after Sun.(Product Announcement)
October 8, 2001... IBM HAS SHARPENED its Unix strategy with the introduction of its eSeries p690 in an attempt to eat into Sun Microsystems' high-end Unix server market share. The new server, known as Regatta, is IBM's first system aimed directly at the $6...

Royalty woes plague W3C plan.(World Wide Web Consortium standards for including patents)
October 8, 2001... AFTER A BLIZZARD of critical postings hit the Web site of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the standards body last week extended the deadline for public comment on its proposal to allow patented technology to be incorporated in Web...

BEA changes hands.(Alfred Chuang promoted to CEO)(Brief Article)
October 8, 2001... BEA Systems promoted Alfred Chuang, currently president and COO, to CEO last week. Previous CEO Bill Coleman will assume the CSO (chief strategy officer) role and will stay on as chairman of the board. Chuang will run the day-to-day operations;...

AMD eyes new chip performance metric.(for Athlon CPUs)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
October 8, 2001... Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) this week will introduce a performance metric for its Athlon line of PC processors. The new metric will grade the overall system performance of the chip when running PC applications instead of the processing speed...

Microsoft takes wraps off new Pocket PC 2002.(PDA operating system)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
October 8, 2001... Microsoft's latest Pocket PC operating system found its way into devices last week. Pocket PC 2002 features several improvements, including an integrated instant messenger, the capability of beaming data to and from devices running Palm's...

IT execs confront budget crunch.(Industry Trend or Event)
October 8, 2001... ECONOMIC JITTERS ARE sending a wave of uncertainty through the technology sector as IT managers fashion more conservative, recession-wary budgets for the new fiscal year. When it comes to technology spending, few companies now undertaking...

SBT spans supply-demand gap.(scan-based trading increasingly popular with retailers)
October 8, 2001... SCAN-BASED trading (SBT) is rapidly catching on among retailers and suppliers because it reinforces the age-old truism that the consumer drives the supply chain. SBT represents a potentially radical supply-chain shift for the retail...

Good old-fashioned CRM : Commence delivers powerful, customizable customer support in a client/server application suite.(Commence RM)(Software Review)(Evaluation)
October 8, 2001... WHEREAS MANY SOFTWARE vendors are converting their products for the Web, Commence has surprisingly released a new version of its CRM suite that maintains its client/server architecture. Commence Relationship Management (RM), which builds on...

Browsers converge on standards : Broader standards support in the latest releases of popular browsers will make life easier for Web application developers.(Netscape 6.0, Microsoft IE 6.0)
October 8, 2001... THE PROMISE OF Web application technology is that any user with any Web browser can connect to any Web application, but that promise rings hollow. Universal browser access has been possible only through the Herculean efforts of Web developers,...

A low-end alternative : With a directory service and Unix core, Mac OS X Server 10 may finally earn Apple a place in the enterprise.(Software Review)(Evaluation)
October 8, 2001... SINCE THE EARLY DAYS of the Macintosh, Apple has struggled with an image problem. Its computers excel when measured by ease of use and friendliness, but IT experts deride the platform for its inability to scale and lack of a server-grade OS....

Pendragon powers up Palm : Web-based development platform lets nonprogrammers build business-ready apps for handhelds.(Software Review)(Evaluation)
October 8, 2001... NOT LONG AGO, Palms and other handheld computers were seen as little more than fancy day-planners for geeks and executives, with very little to offer in the way of business communications. Even today, the real power of these devices often...

Redefining bonuses : No longer are companies awarding huge sign-on or retention bonuses. The trend is to tie bonus awards to bottom-line achievement.
October 8, 2001... EIGHTEEN MONTHS AGO, IT professionals could easily expect sign-on bonuses, retention bonuses, and others in between. Now it takes more than just being at work to get a bonus -- and that's not because the money isn't there. Even for companies...

Driving change : Ralph Szygenda is behind the wheel at General Motors, steering the company's IT makeover.
October 8, 2001... IF EVER A company needed a "big picture" strategist, it is General Motors. The $183 billion automaker giant has a dizzying number of product lines, manufacturing operations in 30 countries, 372,000 employees, and a legacy of bureaucracy and...

Tapping knowledge - P&G deploys knowledge-sharing software to link experts worldwide and facilitate its R&D efforts.(AskMe Enterprise)
October 15, 2001... A COMPANY'S GREATEST asset is its employees, but tapping their store of knowledge can present a challenge to large, geographically dispersed enterprises. Aware that its success hinges largely on the knowledge locked in the minds of its nearly...

Storage virtualization - Will virtualization prove to be a management miracle or just a muddle?(Technical)
October 15, 2001... WHEN THE IDEA of storage virtualization first moved up from the backwater of mainframe computers to debut in glitzy, modern IT networks, many heralded the concept as a Holy Grail of storage techniques. In its purest form, virtualization...

Almost like being there - Digital Planet CTO envisions Webcasting as a cost-saving tool as companies try to cut travel.(Robert Terrell)(Interview)
October 15, 2001... DIGITAL PLANET IS a production house for creating Webcasts, which are increasingly becoming a standard communications tool across nearly every industry segment. In an interview with InfoWorld Editor in Chief Michael Vizard, Digital Planet Chief...

WebDAV protocol comes of age - Technology for enabling collaboration via the Web is surfacing in software, OSes.
October 15, 2001... INCUBATING IN THE standards process for several years, the WebDAV (Web- based Distributed Authoring and Versioning) protocol -- designed to add interoperability and collaborative capabilities to the Internet -- has been steadily making its way...

Reap the benefits of storage networks - Virtualization solutions turn networked storage devices into manageable storage pools for enterprise apps.(Technical)
October 15, 2001... THE EXCEPTIONAL GROWTH in the amount of data that companies must store makes SANs (storage-area networks) one of the more important information technologies today. For companies where demands for storage are doubling every year, the traditional...

ENTERPRISE STRATEGIES: Who holds the keys? Tools rein in user access to network resources via automated processing and rules-based provisioning.
October 15, 2001... MANAGING enterprise resource accessibility is a time-consuming and costly endeavor for many companies. Consider the time lag for getting new hires into the system. (My informal survey revealed this can range from several days to several...

WINDOW MANAGER: Activation, anyone? Windows XP's new 'Product Activation' feature has manyproblems, so let's all get ready.
October 15, 2001... I WROTE LAST week that Microsoft's new Windows XP operating system, scheduled for wide distribution on Oct. 25, has so few real benefits and so many irritations -- especially Passport, an insecure and relentless scheme to vacuum up users'...